Deireadh Fómhair (October) 2012 Edition


Cead Mile Failte!

Greetings and welcome to this month's Ceannard Notes. Last month was an eventful one. PAX Prime, Gaiscioch Reunion, Guild Wars 2's launch and RIFT 1.10 went live. We've had some fantastic ups and some downs as well. All of this can be expected with so much change and excitement happening all around us. Regardless, we have survived and have continued growing despite the rough road to get here and hard lessons learned along the path.

Lets look to the future and celebrate our past. We've got a pretty big newsletter this month so let me give you a rundown of what we did last month and where we're going this month.


From Man To Legend
The Gaiscioch Share Roger's Legend With Sanctum of Rall

On September 5th the Gaiscioch held the memorial event for Roger "Oldroar" Rall. The event was attended by over 400 people between RaidCall, Guild Wars 2, and RIFT. We had so many people that people couldn't see one another on the screen plus we filled up 4 overflow shards. The event was even attended by several ArenaNet personnel that helped us disappear the trolls that came with the event as well. Overall it was a very touching memorial event and served as inspiration to our mission to make this server the best possible community in Guild Wars 2.

If you missed the event you can watch the memorial event you can watch the full memorial event on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/00VWdTW8gO4

If you attended the event and would like to see the short tribute video I discussed at the memorial event be sure to check out the short video at: http://youtu.be/NcvaegCSvp4


The Time is Now
ExtraLife 2012 October 20th Plans

As many of you know this year we're working towards the $10,000 mark which is pretty aggressive but definitely shows our unwavering commitment towards community and saving the lives of children. The ExtraLife Event takes place on October 20th, 2012 and the Gaiscioch Family will be hosting a RIFT Event as well as a Guild Wars 2 Event.

  • RIFT: Conquest & Instant Adventures @ 9-12PM PST
  • GW2: WvW @ 2-8PM PST

It is our hopes that through this event we can place in the top 10 earners for the Extra Life event and again show our undying commitment to not only helping people in game but out as well. Join us for the events and be rewarded for the sum of what we earn in the form of contribution points. If we raise 10,000 all participants in the Extra Life event will earn 10,000 contribution points. Even if you can't donate, sign up, tweet, facebook, ask your friends and family for support. Even your coworkers might be able to help. It's only by all of us working together that we can obtain this goal and astonish the world with our commitment.

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A New Annual Tradition
2012 State of the Family Event

On Saturday, October 13th 2012 at 6PM PST, the Gaiscioch Family will invite all members, fans, friends, and media to join us for the first ever State of the Family event. We are just a month away from our 11th year birthday and we feel it's time that we hold a virtual meet-and-greet event with a bit of structure to help introduce you to who we are, what we do, and how you can become a bigger part of the family. There will be a structured format to this event and we will introduce you to some of our elders and explain the various play-styles our family focuses on. We will introduce you to our elder council and give you a chance to have your questions answered. We will record this event so everyone can listen in at a later date.

The focus of this event will be to help connect every member to our family, help answer questions about the website, and to introduce our eldership. I'd also like to take this opportunity to try to introduce you all to some of the leaders of the Tuatha Guilds if they're available. If you have something you'd like to discuss at the event please visit our official thread on the topic.


Coming Soon
The Monthly Gaiscioch Family Summit

Starting on November 10th we will have our first ever Gaiscioch Family Summit which will become a monthly event for those wishing to get more involved in the family and it's goals. The event will take place on the same date as our Warlord and Elder meeting and be focused on relaying information to the general public. The tentative schedule for this event is as follows:

12PM-1PM: Community Round Tables (Optional)

  • General Family
  • PvE: RIFT
  • PvE: Guild Wars 2
  • PvP: RIFT
  • PvP: Guild Wars 2
  • Crafting
  • Roleplay

These round tables will be lead by the Draio Team Facilitators or other available Draio from each room. The purpose of these round tables is to discuss ideas, needs, questions regarding each unit. This gives members a great time to get to know the elders and warlords that represent their interests.

1PM-2PM: Warlord Meeting - Open to all warlord rank 5 (Fhiaigh) and above to discuss what events they are running and what their needs are for improving their events and encouraging more leaders and participants to join.

2PM-3PM: Elder Meeting - Elders present what their round table discussed and tackle critical items that need to be addressed.

3PM-6PM: Break

6PM-8PM: The Gaisicoch Summit Event - In this event you'll get to meet the elders & warlords, welcome our new members, discuss the contents of the Ceannard Notes in bullet form, and learn of any decisions made at the Elder and Warlord Meetings. The final hour of the event will be for Q&A. This is a great time to learn about the family and stay up to date in what's going on in the Gaiscioch world.


RIFT Update

A House United
Gaiscioch Welcomes It's Defiant Brothers & Sisters

At last the story that we began telling in the Telara Saga back when the game first launched has come true! The Guardians and Defiants are able to join forces against the Dragon Cults and with this all Gaiscioch are now under 1 roof. With 1.10's launch both Guardians and Defiants can group, raid, adventure, communicate, and even join the same guilds.

Now that the wall has fallen all Defiant characters need to request an invite into the Gaiscioch. All your characters will automatically be synced during the next parse as soon as they appear in the Gaiscioch roster. As always you can request an invite 1 of 2 ways. 1: Through Guild Finder (Shift+G) or 2: Ask for a Gaiscioch invite in the Tuatha channel.

Also equally important make sure you have typed /join Tuatha. With the wall falling down both our Defiant and Guardian Tuatha members are in the same channel. Now all 18 guilds that are part of our Tuatha can all communicate through the Tuatha Channel.

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Gaiscioch Community Event Update
The Gaiscioch Eye Raiding and Conquest Over Open World Adventures.

Since 1.10's arrival we've seen a spike in raiding activity and conquest activities. We have also seen a pretty steep decline in crifting and instant adventure night event population (less than 10 people per event). To better suit the families' needs we're going to be combining our Conquest Night with our PvE activities bouncing between Instant Adventures, Raid Rifts, and Zone Invasion hunting. On the off time between conquest fights we'll be tackling some PvE objectives.

We are looking for a couple volunteers to take our low level members who are unable to participate in Conquest out at the same time for some Instant Adventure fun. If you're interested in helping lead our lower level folk around for a few hours every Tuesday Night please let me (Foghladha) know. Once Storm Legion launches we will attempt to run our PvE Only events again for the general public but at this time the interest just isn't there.


Guild Wars 2 Update

The Book Race
Gaiscioch Event Leaders Gain The Squad Commander Abilities

If you've attended one of our family events you'll have seen how much the Squad Commander tome comes in handy. The Gaiscioch are united on the front of raising funds to get these books into our public event leaders hands. So far we have 4 books in the hands of Foghladha (PvE & WvW events), Spartan (WvW Primetime), Elth (WvW Oceanic), and Lakshmi (PvE/Crafting). We are actively watching who's leading activities each week and will be basing future book awards of who's leading community events for the family. We're even drawing the outline for having an in game event to award them to those who decide to stand and lead these large (50 people or more) events on a regular basis. Each of these books cost 100g and we as a family all benefit from their existence in our community event leaders hands. If you have contributions to the Book Fund please send them to Foghladha.2506. The more books we have in the hands our community events team the better.

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The War is On
Gaiscioch Family WvW Events

For those that have attended one of our Gaiscioch Family WvW Events, you know just how fun these can be. Even the person who despises PvP has found enjoyment in these events. Our family is host to 3 public community events each week in the WvW battleground.

Join Spartan on Monday Nights at 6PM PST for WvW Breaking the Ice, a perfect introduction to WvW with the master of tactical brute force warfare himself.

On Thursday Night at 6PM PST join the Gaiscioch Family as we form multiple squads on the battlefield to divide and conquer enemy forces. This is a great chance to catch several of our WvW Warlords in action. Small skill groups welcome.

If you're a late night insomniac or an oceanic player looking for some action, join Elth on Sunday at 12AM Midnight PST for our Off-peak WvW Night.

But you don't have to wait for one of our events to enjoy some WvW fun. Every day there are several organized groups forming up. Simply ask in guild chat or join one of the RaidCall WvW channels to find where the action is at.


Get Your PvE On
WvW isn't all you can do in Guild Wars 2!

Need a break from slaughtering people in WvW? Those silly crafting node's calling your name? Have a boss you want to slay? The Gaiscioch Family has several PvE events planned each week.

Join Lakshmi every Saturday Morning at 9AM PST for the Crafting Faire and Gathering Zerg. Venture across Tyria collecting materials, slaughtering beasts, and then finish with an epic feast. Need an item made, bring your materials and have our legendary crafters assemble them for you. Donations welcome!

Looking to explore a zone you've not yet seen? On Wednesday Night from 6-8PM PST Foghladha will lead you across a Tyrian zone in the Tyrian Conquest event. We will be slaughtering foes, exploring the realm and safeguarding the frontier from pesky centaurs and destroyers.

For those looking to wrap their head around Guild Wars 2, Bes holds a wonderful 101 classes every Friday @ 6PM PST. This is a great opportunity to get questions answered by those who have them.


The Sanctum of Rall
The Gaiscioch Commitment And Vision

Looking at where Sanctum of Rall stands in the Server WvW Standings you might feel a sense of panic or even be upset by this. No we're not the top, we're not the bottom either. Where we stand is as I expected.

If the NFL decided to play a High School football team, you could expect the NFL team to crush those poor high schoolers. Would that victory be epic? No it would be expected. However IF those young men and women (Go PHS!) somehow managed to crush the NFL team, you had better bet that every newsstand in America would be speaking of the High School football team that crushed an NFL team. That my friend is Epic. You can't have EPIC and be on top. When you're the best everyone expects you to win. Any sign of loss and they point at your flaws. Your weakness. There is no epic in being #1. It's the journey from ashes to champion that turns a story epic. EPIC comes from struggle, perseverance, and your stubbornness to quit.

We are Gaiscioch, we are moms, dads, grandmothers, and grandfathers. We are not major league gamers, elitists, or kids with too much time on their hands. We have lives, families, larger learning curves, and slower reflexes. Slow and steady wins the race. We are in this for the long haul and it will take awhile for us to educate our forces, build our strengths and figure out the psychological tendencies of the opponents on the battlefields. In time we will solidify. We will unify. We will prevail. In time we will become a Titan to be reckoned with. But that day is not now. We still have a nation to unify, a battleground to memorize, a game to learn, and friends to make. In due time we will have our victory. Patience is the currency of dreams. Perseverance is the weapon of legends. Unity is the shield of Nations. Lets Be Epic. Make our dreams our reality, and see our house united so that may forge a legend within our nation. We are exactly where we need to be, to provide the most memorable experience for all.

Gaiscioch Athletics Update

11 Is The Lucky Number
Gaiscioch Flag-Football Wins Championship in 11th Season

After 11 seasons the Gaiscioch Flag-Football team has finally pulled it off. They have won the PortlandFootball.com 5-Man Flag-Football Championship game with a narrow victory over the Trojans. Congratulations to all of our Gaiscioch Football Team members and we look forward to taking home more championship victories in the future. Be sure to watch the Gaiscioch Flag-Football Summer 2012 Playoff highlight reel.


In Closing

I want to thank you all for being part of our family. To those just joining us, cead mile failte! To those returning from long adventures in other realms, welcome back! I look forward to playing with all of you. I'll see you at the State of the Family event!

Slan Go Foill!
(Goodbye For Now)

Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
Ceannard De Gaiscioch Treubh